Recycling as creation in postmodern music

Abstract

Recycling music from the past has a long history and takes many forms: transcription, paraphrase, parody, simple allusion, quoting, sampling, borrowing, rewriting, recomposing... These practices have changed considerably with the emergence of the postmodern paradigm. Rewriting musical works may now be seen as a way of expressing creativity relegated to distortions and comments on “found objects”. Postmodern composers thus produce infinitely recyclable and adjustable artifacts, perfectly suited to wander the planetary networks and nourish the soundscapes of the future virtual universes set to supplant, if not to the real world.